A man sits on a bench behind Woodburn Hall. On the other end of the bench is a bronze statue of a seated figure.

[ Music ] >> Hello Barbara.

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On screen text. I U President Michael A McRobbie on the legacy of Elinor "Lin" Ostrom.

Of course Lin brought enormous honor and distinction to Indiana University by being a Nobel Prize winner, and of course the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics, which made her Nobel Prize even that much more significant.

 

Rows of people sit along the back of a stage. Ostrom steps to meet a man standing at the center of the stage. They shake hands as he hands her an award. She smiles and gives a small bow. On screen text. Nobel Prize dot org.

She was also an extraordinary collaborator.

She had a very wide range of faculty and students across the university she worked with, across other institutions in the state, across the nation, and around the world.

Ostrom smiles in a portrait.

The number of people that she collaborated with was probably certainly in the high hundreds and not the thousands.

It was really quite amazing.

The bronze statue on the bench depicts a smiling Ostrom with one arm draped along the back of the bench. She sits with her body angled toward the opposite end of the bench, as if chatting with a friend. Later, photos show Ostrom speaking at podiums.

One of the things that really made her special was her constant intellectual intensity.

It was always wonderful to be in her presence.

But she took everything seriously.

Any question, any discussion, any matter, Lynn would take it seriously and respond in a serious way.

At the same time, she was totally and utterly without pretension of any kind, utterly ordinary, down to earth in the way she interacted with people.

She made no distinction between whether you were a fellow Nobel Prize winner, a head of state, a graduate student, or one of her many assistants, one of whom I've been lucky enough to recruit as my own executive assistant.

President McRobbie looks down at a large rock inlaid with a plaque dedicated to Ostrom.

The university has had an enormous number of very distinguished women faculty members, scientists, researchers, scholars and so on, but as a Nobel Prize winner Lynn ahs to really be top of that group.

And then consequentially this project, the bridging the visibility gap which is about recognizing women and minority people associated with the university, it's entirely appropriate that she be the first woman recognized through this wonderful sculpture.

It is, I think, extraordinary fitting that that person should be Lin Ostrom.

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On screen text. Indiana University. I U dot E D U.